Flowable material applicators are often used to apply a flowable material to a surface. One conventional type of applicator is a roller, which includes a roller frame, a roller rotatably coupled to the frame, and a roller cover co-rotatably secured to the roller. The roller cover is usually cylindrical and includes a fiber or fabric-like covering (e.g., a nap) for retaining the flowable material and transferring the material to a surface as the roller is rolled across the surface. The roller frame provides support for the roller cover, and often includes a handle. Some typical flowable materials include paint, adhesives, lacquers, stains, coatings, and the like. In the paint industry, a paint roller is an often-used applicator for applying paint to a surface. For example, during a painting operation, the roller cover is placed initially in the paint, and then rolled along a surface to transfer the paint from the roller cover to the surface.
Upon conclusion of a flowable material application (e.g., painting) operation or job, it may be desirable to clean the roller cover for future use. However, because the roller cover is typically saturated with the flowable material (e.g., paint), the roller cover can be difficult to clean. As a result, the roller cover is often thrown away after a single application operation or job. Continually disposing of used roller covers requires constant purchasing of new roller covers for new jobs, which can be expensive and inconvenient.
Some known paint roller cover cleaners are designed to clean paint from the roller covers for continual use of a single paint roller cover over multiple painting operations or jobs. However, such cleaners each have various design, application, and performance shortcomings. For example, some paint roller cover cleaners include a circumferential gap such that only a portion of the paint on the roller cover is removed, leaving behind a streak of un-removed paint. Other paint roller cover cleaners are difficult to position around the cover without threading a handle of the paint roller through the cleaner before or after the operation. Additionally, certain known cover cleaners are somewhat difficult to engage the cover without precisely aligning and applying a uniform pressure across the cleaner. Moreover, many known cover cleaners are prone to binding during the cleaning process, without a means to easily unbind the cleaners. Further, many known paint roller cleaners require the user to provide a source of substantially pressurized water from a specific faucet thread configuration to connect to a special hose or fitting supplied with the cleaner apparatus. If the user does not have the special thread or pressurized water available, the apparatus has limited use. Other cover cleaners require the user to furnish a power rotating tool (such as an electric drill) for rotary cleaning the cover.